Henry Lee Lucas

The Charles Manson Trial: A Chronology 666

November 12, 1934 Charles Manson is born in Cincinnati, the illegitimate son of a sixteen-year-old girl named Kathleen Maddox. His father, who Manson never met, was a "Colonel Scott" from Ashland, Kentucky. 1939 Manson's mother, a heavy drinker, is sentenced to prison for armed robbery. 1947 Manson's mother tries to send Charles to a foster home. A court orders him sent to the Gibault School for Boys in Terre Haute, Indiana. 1948 Manson commits his first known crime, the burglary of a grocery store. He is caught and sent to a juvenile detention center. He escapes and commits two armed robberies. Apprehended again, Manson is sent to the Indiana School for Boys in Plainfield, where he spends the next three years--except for brief periods of freedom during eighteen escapes. 1951 Manson escapes from the School for Boys and heads west in a stolen car, burglarizing 15 to 20 gas stations along the way. He is caught in Utah and sent to the National Training School for Boys in Washington, D. C. A psychiatrist calls Manson a "slick" but "extremely sensitive" boy. 1952 In his last act of criminal violence before the 1969 murders, Manson sodomizes a boy while holding a razor to his throat. He is transferred to Federal Reformatory at Petersburg, Virginia. Later in 1952, Manson is moved to a more secure reformatory at Chillicothe, Ohio. 1955 Manson marries Rosalie Willis, a waitress from Wheeling. The couple produces a child, Charles, Jr. Manson works as a parking-lot attendant and busboy--and steals cars. In October, he is arrested for auto theft and sentenced to five years probation 1956 Manson is sentenced to three years imprisonment at San Pedro, California for violating the terms of his 1955 probation. 1958 Manson is divorced. His ex-wife retains custody of their child. Manson is released on parole and becomes a pimp in southern California. 1959 Manson is arrested for forging a treasury check. He is given a ten-year suspended sentence. 1960 In January, Manson marries again--this time, a nineteen-year-old. In April, he is indicted on federal Mann Act charges. He is arrested in Laredo, and brought back to California where is ordered to prison to serve the ten-year sentence that had been suspended in 1959. 1961 Manson is transferred to a federal penitentiary at McNeil Island, Washington. He claims to be a Scientologist. Prison psychiatrists say he has "deep-seated personality problems." 1963 After fathering a second child, Charles Luther Manson, Manson is again divorced. 1964 Manson becomes obsessed by the music of the Beatles. He learns to play a steel guitar. 1966 Manson aspires to be a song writer, and devotes most of his spare time in prison to the task. March 21, 1967 Manson asks prison officials to let him remain in prison, but having completed a ten-year prison term, he is released. He heads for San Francisco. Summer 1968 Manson and a number of his followers, now called "The Family," move into Spahn ranch in southern California. December 1968 The Beatles release their White Album, which proves to be a great influence Manson's thinking. March 23, 1969 Manson visits 10050 Cielo Drive (the Tate residence) looking for Tony Melcher, who he hoped might publish his music. Tate's photographer curtly tells Manson to leave by "the back alley," possibly supplying a motive for the later attack at the Tate home. July 31, 1969 A music teacher named Gary Hinman is stabbed to death. On the wall near the body, in Hinman's blood, was printed "political piggy." August 8, 1969 Manson tells Family members, "Now is the time for Helter Skelter." That evening he tells Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins, Tex Watson, and Linda Kasabian to get knives and changes of clothes. As he sends them from the ranch on their mission, he tells them "to leave a sign --something witchy." Watson drives to the Tate residence. August 9, 1969 Shortly after midnight, the brutal attack on residents at the Tate residence begins. In all, 102 stab wounds are inflicted on four victims; a fifth victim is shot. Left dead are actress Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Voytek Frykowski, Abigail Folger, and Steven Parent. The murders are discovered by housekeeper Winifred Chapman the next morning. The four Family members return to Spahn ranch, where Manson criticizes them for doing a messy job. That night, Manson, along with Patricia Krenwinkel, Tex Watson, Leslie Van Houten, Linda Kasabian cruise around, looking for potential victims. August 10, 1969 In the early morning hours, Family members stab to death Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. The words "Death to Pigs" and "Healter [sic] Skelter" are found printed on a wall and a refrigerator door. September 1, 1969 Under a bush near his home, a ten-year-old boy finds the gun used in the Tate murders. The boy's father turns the gun over to the LAPD. The LAPD fails to do a proper investigation. October 12, 1969 Manson is arrested at Barker Ranch in Death Valley and charged with grand theft auto. He is put in jail in Independence. November 6, 1969 While incarcerated in Los Angeles on other charges, Susan Atkins tells a fellow inmate, Virginia Castro (Graham), that she participated in the Tate murders. She tells Castro of a "death list" of celebrities targeted by the Family, including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Tom Jones, Steve McQueen, and Frank Sinatra. November 12, 1969 Al Springer, a visitor to the Spahn ranch, tells LAPD detectives that on August 11 or 12 Charles Manson had bragged about "knocking off five" pigs the other night. November 17, 1969 Danny DeCarlo implicates Manson in the Spahn ranch murder of Shorty Shea, and also suggests that persons at the Spahn ranch might also have been responsible for the Tate murders--but, he tells detectives, he would be afraid to testify. November 18, 1969 Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi is assigned the Tate-LaBianca case. July 24, 1970 The Tate-LaBianca murder trial, with defendants Charles Manson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten, opens in Los Angeles. August 10, 1970 Judge Older grants Linda Kasabian immunity from prosecution for the Tate-LaBianca murders in return for agreeing to appear as the prosecution's star witness at the Manson trial. November 16, 1970 The state rests its case in the Manson trial. November 19, 1970 The defense announces, without having presented any evidence, that it also rests. November 20, 1970 Manson announces that he wishes to testify. He makes a strange statement, saying "The children that come at you with knives are your children. You taught them. I didn't teach them. I just tried to help them stand up...." On cross-examination, Bugliosi asks Manson if he thinks he is Jesus Christ. November 30, 1970 Defense attorney Ronald Hughes fails to show up in court. He is never seen again, leading to speculation he was murdered by The Family. January 15, 1971 Vincent Bugliosi presents the prosecution's closing argument in the Manson trial. January 25, 1971 The jury convicts all Tate-LaBianca defendants of first-degree murder. March 29, 1971 Concluding the penalty phase of the trial, the jury fixes the penalty as death for all four Tate-LaBianca defendants. April 19, 1971 Judge Older sentences Manson to death. Manson is ordered sent to San Quenton's death row. October 1971 Charles "Tex" Watson is convicted on seven counts of first-degree murder. February 18, 1972 The California Supreme Court declares the death penalty unconstitutional and Manson's sentence is automatically reduced to life in prison. October 1972 Manson is transferred to Folsom Prison. May 1976 Manson is sent to Vacaville prison, where he remains for the next nine years. September 25, 1984 Another inmate, claiming "God told me to kill Manson," sets Manson on fire, causing serious burns on large parts of his body. July 1985 Manson is transferred to San Quentin Prison 1988 In a televised interview with Geraldo Rivera, Manson warns, "I'm going to chop up more of you m-----f----ers. I'm going to kill as many of you as I can. I'm going to pile you up to the sky." March 1989 Manson is transferred to Corcoran Prison. 1994 The house at 10050 Cielo Drive, formerly rented by Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski, is demolished. March 1997 Manson is denied parole (for the ninth time) in a hearing broadcast live on Court TV. Manson responds by saying, "That's cool....I'm not saying I wasn't involved [in Helter Skelter]. I'm just saying that I did not break God's law....Thank you." April 2002 Manson is refused parole for the tenth time at a hearing he refused to attend. Manson, now 67, will next be up for parole in 2007.

The Defendants

Susan Atkins (aka Sadie Mae Glutz) As a young teen, Susan Atkins sang in her church choir in San Jose, California and nursed her mother, who was dying of cancer. After her mother's death, however, her life went seriously off course. She fought with her father, dropped out of high school, and moved to San Francisco where she became a topless dancer, hustler, and gun moll.

While living in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district in 1967, Atkins met Charles Manson. In her grand jury testimony, Atkins said Manson "gave me the faith in myself to be able to know that I am a women....I gave myself to him." Atkins said there was "no limit" to what she would do for "the only complete man I have ever met." To Atkins, Manson "represented a Jesus Christ-like person."

Atkins spent a year-and-a-half traveling around the Southwest with other Manson Family members on an old school bus, taking lots of LSD, and practicing free love with Manson Family members of both sexes. In 1968, she bore a child, who Manson helped deliver, named Zezozose Zadfrack Glutz. Atkins moved into the Family's Spahn Ranch in 1969. On August 8 of that year, she obeyed Manson's order to join in the what would be the bloody attack that left five dead at the home of actress Sharon Tate. Atkins later admitted stabbing Voytek Frykowski and holding down Tate while she was stabbed repeatedly by Tex Watson. She also said she wrote "PIG" using Tate's blood on a door of the residence.

While being held on other charges in 1969, Atkins explained her decision to participate in the massacre at the Tate residence to another inmate, Virginia Graham: "You have to have real love in your heart to do this for people."

The LAPD proposed granting Atkins prosecutorial immunity in return for her testimony that could convict Manson and other Family members. Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi objected, saying "We don't give that gal anything!" In the end, the prosecution offered not to seek the death penalty in return for her trial testimony--an offer which Atkins, after testifying before the Grand Jury, refused.

Atkins, then twenty-two, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1970. Her sentence was reduced to life imprisonment when the California Supreme Court declared the state's death penalty unconstitutional.

Atkins continues to reside at this writing at the California Institution for Women in Frontero. In September 1974, Atkins said her cell door opened and "a brilliant light poured over her." Describing the experience in her 1977 book Child of Satan, Child of God, Atkins said she believed the light was Jesus, telling her she had been forgiven.

Like the other two female Tate-LaBianca defendants, Atkins has had an exemplary prison record, but faces no immediate likelihood of parole. Leslie Van Houten A psychiatrist, after evaluating Leslie Van Houten, described her as "a psychologically loaded gun which went off as a consequence of the complex intermeshing of highly unlikely and bizarre circumstances." The psychiatrist saw Van Houten as "a spoiled little princess" who, from childhood on, was impulsive, easily frustrated, and prone to displays of temper. She admitted, for example, to having beaten her adopted sister with a shoe.

Although described as being the least committed to Manson of the three female defendants, Van Houten nonetheless agreed to participate in the murderous raid on the LaBianca home on August 10, 1969. She helped hold down Rosemary LaBianca while Tex Watson stabbed her to death. In a November 1969 interview with police, Van Houten admitted to knowledge of the Tate-LaBianca murders, but denied participation.

Van Houten's first attorney, Donald Barnett, was dismissed after crossing Manson. Her second lawyer, Marvin Part, wanted to show that Van Houten was "insane in a way that is almost science fiction." Part saw her crime as influenced by LSD and Charles Manson, but Van Houten saw it differently: "I was influenced by the war in Viet Nam and TV." At Manson's urging, Van Houten fired Part and yet another attorney was appointed. When Van Houten's third attorney, Ronald Hughes, also began pursuing a strategy that ran counter to that favored by Manson (Manson opposed any strategy that suggested the other defendants acted under his influence), the Family had him killed. No one has ever been charged with his murder.

Van Houten's first-degreee murder conviction in the Tate-LaBianca trial was overturned by a state appellate court in 1976 on the ground that Judge Older erred in not granting Van Houten's motion for a mistrial following the disappearance of attorney Ronald Hughes. In her first re-trial, the jury was unable to reach a verdict. Released on bond for a few months, Van Houten lived with a former writer for the Christian Science Monitor. She was tried a third time in 1978 and convicted of first-degree murder after the jury rejected her defense of diminished capacity as the result of prolonged use of hallucinogenic drugs.

In prison at the California Institution for Women , Van Houten accepted responsibility for her crime: "Being a follower does not excuse." She earned a degree from a correspondence school (with a major in English Lit), edited the prison paper, sewed for the homeless, and wrote short stories. Although no one could find fault with her prison record, she was again denied parole in 2002. Van Houten's life in prison is described in a recent book by Karlene Faith, The Long Prison Journey of Leslie Van Houten (2001).

Patricia Krenwinkel ("Katie") In September 1967, twenty-year-old Patricia Krenwinkel joined the Family, leaving behind her Manhattan Beach apartment, her car, her job, and even her last paycheck. She joined many other Family members on a drug-and-sex-filled eighteen-month tour of the American West in an old school bus, before settling into Spahn ranch in 1969. At her sentencing, Krenwinkel idealized the Family's early days: "We were just like wood nymphs and wood creatures. We would run through the woods with flowers in our hair, and Charles would have a small flute."

In August 1969, Krenwinkel participated in the murders at the Tate and LaBianca residences. At the Tate home, Krenwinkel dragged Abigail Folger from her bedroom to the living room, fought with her, and stabbed her. Later she would say, "I stabbed her and I kept stabbing her." Asked about how it felt, she replied, "Nothing--I mean, what is there to describe? It was just there, and it was right." The next night, Krenwinkel stabbed Rosemary LaBianca and carved the word "WAR" on Leno LaBianca's stomach.

Krenwinkel was arrested near her aunt's home in Mobile, Alabama on December 1, 1969. Krenwinkel had gone to Alabama, she said much later, because she feared Manson would find her and kill her. In February, she waived extradition proceedings and voluntarily returned to California to stand trial with the other defendants. Her trial attorney, Paul Fitzgerald, offered only a weak defense. At one point, Fitzgerald suggested that although Krenwinkel's fingerprints were found inside the Tate home, she might just have been "an invited guest or friend." Krenwinkel spent much of the trial drawing doodles of devils and other satanic figures.

At the California Institution for Women in Frontero, Krenwinkel has been a model prisoner. She has, with Leslie Van Houten, counseled young drug offenders, completed a course in data processing, and played on the prison softball team. She has expressed deep remorse for her role in the killings. In a 1994 interview broadcast on ABC, Krenwinkel said, "I wake up every day and know that I'm a destroyer of life, and living with that is the most difficult thing of all. That's what I deserve--to wake up every morning and know that."

Charles Manson Charles Manson was born to a promiscuous sixteen-year-old girl named Kathleen Maddox on November 12, 1934 in Cincinnati. His presumed father was a "Colonel Scott" of Ashland Kentucky, whom Manson never met. When Manson was five, his mother received a five-year sentence for armed robbery, and Manson moved in with his aunt and uncle in West Virginia. His mother reclaimed him in 1942 when she was paroled, but within five years her heavy drinking led to Manson's being placed in a caretaking school in Indiana. School officials described young Manson as moody and suffering a persecution complex--but "likable" during those periods he was feeling happy.

At age 13, Manson began his life of crime, robbing a grocery store and a casino. For most of the next decade, Manson was shuffled from one institution to another, usually committing a series of crimes during his brief periods of freedom. By age 16, Manson had been labeled "aggressively antisocial." A prison psychiatrist described Manson at age 18 as suffering "psychic trauma," but still "an extremely sensitive boy who has not yet given up in terms of securing some love and affection from the world."

Released on parole in 1958, Manson took to pimping. In June 1960, Manson was arrested on a Mann Act charge. The Mann Act charges were dropped, but Manson was given a ten-year sentence for violating the parole terms relating to an earlier federal conviction for forging a Treasury check. Prison records from the early 1960s show Manson as having interests in Scientology, drama, softball, croquet, and--especially --the guitar. By the mid-1960s, Manson became obsessed with the music of the Beatles. When Manson's release date came on March 21, 1967, Manson begged authorities to let him stay in prison, but he was told they had no power to allow him to do so.

Manson, age 32, headed for San Francisco and there gave birth to what would soon be called "The Family." Manson became the unquestioned head of the Family. He dominated lives, even to the point of telling Family members who they must have sex with. To some members of the Family, Manson represented a "Christ-like" figure. He encouraged such talk, sometimes asking a Family member, "Don't you know who I am?"

Combining ideas taken from the Beatles White Album and the Bible's Book of Revelation, Manson developed a bizarre prophecy that blacks would soon rise up against the white establishment and then turn to him--having survived the coming "Helter Skelter in an underground pleasure dome beneath Death Valley--to lead the newly constituted nation. In August 1969, in the hopes of giving Helter Skelter a push, Manson sent a team of Family members on their murderous missions to the Tate and LaBianca homes.

Convicted and sentenced to death largely on the evidence of Family member Linda Kasabian, Manson saw his death sentence commuted to life in prison following a 1976 California Supreme Court decision declaring the state's death penalty law unconstitutional.

In his own testimony at trial, Manson described himself as a chameleon-like character: "Charlie never projects himself....People see in Charlie their own reflection....Linda Kasabian testified against me because she saw me as the father she never liked....I do what love tells me."

Since his conviction, Manson has been denied parole ten times, most recently in 2002. He is given almost no hope of ever being released. He currently resides in a maximum security section of a state penitentiary in Concoran, California.

Charles "Tex" Watson (Tried Separately) One of Charles "Tex" Watson's former neighbors in Collin County, Texas described him as "the boy next door." Watson was an "A" student in a high school and a sports star. He held the state record in the low hurdles. According to his uncle, Watson's problems started when he began taking drugs in college. In 1966, he dropped out of college and the next year he was in California, using and dealing drugs.

Watson joined the "Family" in 1967, and soon became Manson's right-hand man. Family member Al Springer told police that "Charlie and Tex are the brains out there" on the ranch. Springer described Watson as "just like a college student." He said Watson "kept his mouth shut" and enjoyed working on dune buggies.

In August 1969, Watson became the principal killer in the Tate-LaBianca murders. Announcing his arrival at the Tate residence, Watson said, "I am the Devil and I'm here to do the Devil's business." He shot Steven Parent and Jay Sebring, and stabbed to death Voytek Frykowski, Abigail Folger, Sharon Tate, and Leno LaBianca. After the Tate murders, Watson told Manson, "Boy, it sure was helter skelter."

Watson returned to McKinney, Texas after the Tate-LaBianca murders. He was arrested in Texas on November 30, 1969, after local police were notified by California investigators that his fingerprints were found to match a print found on the front door of the Tate home.

Watson fought extradition to California long enough that he was not included among the three defendants tried with Manson. Instead, Watson went on trial separately in August 1971. His defense attorneys produced eight psychiatrists to prove the glassy-eyed Watson was insane at the time of the murders--or at least suffered from severely diminished capacity. On the witness stand, Watson tried to portray himself as Manson's unthinking slave. (He also testified that the victims at the Tate residence were "running around like chickens with their heads cut off.") The jury convicted Watson of first-degree murder.

Watson, who now resides at the Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California, has renounced Manson and expressed "deepest remorse" to his "many victims." In 1975, Watson became a born-again Christian and, in 1983, an ordained minister. He married a Norwegian wife and has three children. In 1978 he co-wrote a book, Will You Die For Me?

Other Key Figures

Linda Kasabian, Star Witness for the Prosecution Linda Kasabian grew up in broken home with a stepfather she strongly disliked. At age 16, she left her mother's home in New Hampshire and headed west "looking," she said, "for God." Instead, she found lots of drugs, lots of sex, and--on July 4, 1969--Charles Manson. Married, mother of a two-year-old girl and pregnant at the time, Kasabian learned from a friend about "this beautiful man named Charlie" and the idyllic life his followers led at Spahn Ranch. To Kasabian, it was the "answer to an unspoken prayer."

Soon after arriving at Spahn, Kasabian made love to Manson. She said later that she thought Manson "could see inside her." She soon fell in love with the man who would send her on a mission of death.

Kasabian had only been a member of the Family for six weeks when Manson announced, on August 8, 1969, "Now is the time for Helter Skelter." Kasabian joined Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkel in traveling to the Tate home, where she witnessed the shooting of Steven Parent and the vicious attacks on Abigail Folger and Voytek Frykowsi. Kasabian did not directly participate in the murders, later telling Manson, "I'm not you, Charlie--I can't kill anybody." The next night Kasabian rode with Manson and other Family members to the LaBianca home, but did not enter the home or see either of the murders.

Three days after the LaBianca murders, Kasabian slipped out of Spahn Ranch in a borrowed car and headed for Taos, New Mexico, where she rejoined her husband. After returning to California to retrieve her child, Tanya, Kasabian hitchhiked first to Florida and then to her mother's home in New Hampshire.

California authorities issued a warrant for Kasabian's arrest on December 1, 1969. Kasabian voluntarily surrendered to police in Concord, New Hampshire and was flown back to California. She wanted to tell her story.

Almost immediately, her attorney, Gary Fleishman, proposed to prosecutors a deal whereby Kasabian would testify against other Family members in return for complete immunity. Having previously made a deal with Susan Atkins, Prosecutor Vince Bugliosi initially rejected the proposal. When Atkins changed her mind and announced she would not testify at the trial, Bugliosi quickly negotiated a deal with Kasabian's attorney: the prosecution would petition for immunity after she testified. Kasabian turned out to be a great witness--brutally frank and very believable. She left the stand after eighteen days of testimony. In his closing argument, Bugliosi said Charles Manson "sent out from the fires of hell at Spahn Ranch three heartless, bloodthirsty robots and--unfortunately for him--one human being, the hippie girl Linda Kasabian."

After completing her testimony, Kasabian rejoined he husband and children, moving into a small farm in New Hampshire. She moved to the Pacific Northwest for awhile, living under an assumed name. Later, she left her husband and returned to New Hampshire, where she lived a rough, rather down-and-out life in the 1980s.

Vincent Bugliosi, Chief Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, chief prosecutor in the Tate-LaBianca murder trials, was born in the northern Minnesota town of Hibbing (also the childhood home of musician Bob Dylan and basketball star Kevin McHale). His family moved to southern California, where Bugliosi graduated from Hollywood High School before attending Miami University on a tennis scholarship.

After graduating from UCLA Law School in 1964, Bugliosi took a job in the office of the Los Angeles District Attorney. Bugliosi quickly developed a strong reputation, winning convictions in 103 of 104 felony jury trials. On November 18, 1969, Bugliosi learned that he had been given his greatest responsibility to date: trying the Tate-LaBianca murder case.

Bugliosi threw himself into the case, working 100-hour weeks for the almost two years between assignment and sentencing. Unlike many prosecutors, Bugliosi became very involved in the investigation, accompanying detectives on searches of Spahn and Barker ranches, checking on leads, and interviewing key witnesses.

Bugliosi's chief goal in the Tate-LaBianca case was securing a first-degree murder conviction of Charles Manson. He identified the key to the case as proving that Manson had total dominion over other Family members. With the important testimony of Linda Kasabian and others, he was successful in doing so.

During the course of the trial, Charles Manson told the bailiff, "I am going to have Bugliosi and the judge killed." Knowing Manson's record, officials did not take this to be an idle threat and a bodyguard was assigned to accompany Bugliosi during the remainder of the trial. Bugliosi received numerous hang-up calls during the middle of the night (even when he changed to an unlisted number), but no attempts were made on his life. After Manson's sentencing, Bugliosi had, at Manson's request, a ninety-minute conversation with Manson, in which the convicted killer told him, "I don't have hard feelings" and that he did "a fantastic" job in convicting him.

After the Manson trials, Bugliosi took to almost full-time writing. His book about the Manson trial, Helter Skelter, was published in 1974. Other subjects of his writing include the war on drugs, the Kennedy assassination, and a 1996 book on the O. J. Simpson trial, Outrage: The Five Reasons Why O. J. Simpson Got Away With Murder. Two of his most recent books are No Island of Sanity: Paula Jones v Bill Clinton (1998) and The Betrayal of America (2001), a book criticizing the Supreme Court decision handing the presidency to George W. Bush.

Irving Kanarek, Attorney for Charles Manson Even before his remarkable performance as the defense attorney for Charles Manson in the Tate-LaBianca murder case, Irving Kanarek earned a reputation as an obstructionist of the first order. He was frequently censured by judges. One judge bluntly called him "the most obstructionist man I have ever met." Kanarek has a purpose for his obstructionism tactics: his goal seemed to be to confuse juries and knock opposing attorneys off stride, especially in cases where the evidence against his client was overwhelming.

In March 1970, Ronald Hughes--Manson's first attorney--suggested to Manson that Kanarek enter the case as his attorney. Although calling Karerek "the worst man in town I could pick," Manson requested that Kanarek be substituted as his attorney two weeks before the start of trial. Prosecutor Vince Bugliosi strongly objected to the substitution of Kanarek as Manson's attorney, but Judge Older found no legal ground for denying Manson's request and Kanarek.

Kanarek may have established some sort of record for objections in the Manson trial. He objected nine times during the prosecution's opening statement, and by the third day of trial had registered more than 200 objections when the press stopped counting. Frequently, Kanarek's objection were made in "shotgun" form, including many suggested grounds that were totally inapplicable: "Leading and suggestive; no foundation; conclusion and hearsay." Other times his objections were intended to influence the jury. For example, he objected to the testimony of Linda Kasabian by declaring, "Object, Your Honor, on the grounds this witness is not competent because she is insane!" Kanarek also bombarded the court with motions, many of them novel to say the least, such as a motion to have "Mr. Manson suppressed from evidence" as the product of an illegal search. Kanarek raised eyebrows for asking bizarre questions, such as when he asked Kasabian (during his seven-day cross-examination after Kasabian's direct testimony in which she revealed she had taken LSD about fifty times), "Describe what happened on trip number twenty-three."

Kanarek was found guilty of contempt four times during the Manson trial. The first contempt came when Judge Older found Kanarek guilty of "directly violating my order not to repeatedly interrupt." On two occasions, Kanarek was ordered to overnight in the county jail. Near the end of the long trial, Older told Kanarek he was "totally without scruples, ethics, and professional responsibility."

Despite his aggressive representation, Kanarek's work did not always please his client. At one point, Manson was ready to dismiss Kanarek when the defense attorney begged on his knees to keep him. Manson reportedly also threatened at various times to have Kanarek killed.

In his seven-day summation--which Judge Older called not an "argument but a filibuster"--, Kanarek argued that the female defendants killed their victims not for Manson, but out of love for Tex Watson.

Despite the press's view of Kanarek as something of a joke, Prosecutor Vince Bugliosi had a different opinion. Bugliosi wrote in his book Helter Skelter that Kanarek "frequently scored points."

Kanarek was ordered to be inactive by the California State Bar in 1990.

Ronald Hughes, Murdered Attorney for Van Houten

Prior to his representation of Leslie Van Houten in the Tate-LaBianca murder trial, Ronald Hughes had never tried his case. His inexperience showed frequently early on in the trial, but by the trial's midpoint, Prosecutor Vince Bugliosi though he was doing "damn well." Hughes, called "the hippie lawyer" by some, had an intimate knowledge of the hippie subculture that sometimes served his client well. For example, he was able to raise questions about Linda Kasabian's credibility by asking her about hallucinogenic drugs, her belief in ESP, her thoughts that she might be a witch, and her experiencing "vibrations" from Charles Manson.

Hughes was among the first lawyers to meet with Charles Manson in December, 1969. Initially signed on as the attorney for Charles Manson, Hughes was replaced by Irving Kanarek two weeks before the start of the trial.

As attorney for defendant Leslie Van Houten, Hughes tried to separate the interests of his client from those of Charles Manson. He hoped to show that Van Houten was not acting independently, but was completely controlled in her actions by Manson.

Hughes decision to pursue an independent strategy almost certainly cost him his life. On the last weekend of November, 1970, Hughes disappeared while camping in a remote area near Sespe Hot Springs. His badly decomposed body was not discovered until four months later. Although no one was ever charged with the murder of Hughes, at least two Family members have admitted that the killing of Hughes was a "retaliation murder" by Manson.

After Hughes disappeared, police searched the garage behind a friend's house that was Hughes's home. In the dirty garage, police saw the mattress Hughes used as his bed and his framed bar certificate on the wall, but no clues that might explain what happened to him.

The Book of Revelation (Chapter 9)and Charles Manson

Manson's Interpretation of the Book of Revelation**

1. Manson saw himself as "the fifth angel" (Verse 1) who would be given "the key to the pit of the abyss."

2. Verse 11 refers the fifth angel as "king," whose "name in Hebrew is Abaddon." The Catholic Douay Version contains also a Latin name, inadvertantly omitted from other versions: "Exterminans."

3. Verse 3 says that "out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth; and power was given them." Manson believed that the "locusts" were in fact "beetles"--the English musical group, "The Beatles."

4. Manson found confirmation for the Beatles being the "locusts" of Revelation in verses 7 through 9. Verse 7 refers to the locusts having "faces as were men's faces," but verse 8 says "they had hair as the hair of women"--which Manson took to be a reference to the Beatles' long hair. Also, verse 9 refers to the locusts as having "breastplates of iron." In Manson's interpretation the Beatles' breastplates were their electric guitars. The "horses" that they rode (verse 7) were dune buggies. Finally, Manson saw the "fire and smoke and brimstone" that came out of their mouths (verse 17) as being the powerful lyrics to their songs--especially those in the White Album. Manson also at times saw the Beatles "the four angels" of verse 15.

5. The 200,000,000 persons comprising "the armies of the horsemen" (verse 16) who would spread destruction around the earth were, in Manson's interpretation, motorcyclists.

6. Manson interpreted verse 4--"And it was said unto them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing"--as meaning that it was wrong to kill any living thing--except, perversely, people. Manson would frequently upbraid family members for killing rattlesnakes or other creatures.

7. Manson believed he would lead his Family to the desert, where they would wait out the coming holocaust and multipy until they numbered 144,000--a number he got from Revelation, Chapter 7 which refers to twelve tribes of Isrreal, each numbering 12,000.

8. Manson believed that the entrance to "the pit of the abyss" (verse 1) was a forgotten cave somewhere in Death Valley. Through this cave one could gain entrace to a wonderful land "of milk and honey" lighted by glowing walls and filled with warm spring water.

9. Perhaps most critically, was Manson's interpretation of verse 15: "And the four angels were loosed, that had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, that they should kill the third part of men." Manson saw verse 15 as a prophecy of the imminent Helter Skelter in which a revolt by blacks would result in a killing of one-third of the population. Manson may have believed that he was setting this revolt in motion in August of 1969 when he loosed from Spahn ranch his Family members with instructions to kill. 666

Henry Lee Lucas (* 23. August 1936) ist ein US-amerikanischer Serienmörder.

Seinen ersten Mord beging Henry Lee Lucas im Jahre 1952.

Mit seinem Komplizen Ottis Toole beging er bis zu seiner Verhaftung viele Morde, deren Anzahl er zusätzlich noch unmäßig aufblähte, und wurde dafür zum Tode verurteilt.

1998 wurde er vom Gouverneur von Texas, George W. Bush, begnadigt, so dass er nur eine lebenslange Haftstrafe abbüßen muss. Henry Lee Lucas starb am 13 März 2001.

Dies war übrigens die einzige Begnadigung, der George W. Bush je stattgegeben hat. Er begründete sie damit, dass Henry Lee Lucas ein bestimmter, 1979 in Texas verübter Mord nicht nachgewiesen werde konnte, da er sich in Florida befand.

Zitat von Bush:

Henry Lee Lucas is unquestionably guilty of other despicable crimes which he has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. However, I believe there is enough doubt about this particular crime that the state of Texas should not impose its ultimate penalty by executing him.

(Henry Lee Lucas ist fraglos anderer verabscheuungswürdiger Verbrechen schuldig, für die er dazu verurteilt wurde, den Rest seines Lebens im Gefängnis zu verbringen. Allerdings glaube ich, dass es genügend Zweifel hinsichtlich dieses speziellen Verbrechens gibt, dass der Staat Texas nicht die Höchststrafe in Form seiner Hinrichtung verhängen sollte.)

Filme

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) Regie John McNaughton

Weblinks

• Henry Lee Lucas
• Henry Lee Lucas: Deadly Drifter (englisch)
• Kurzer "Lebenslauf" (englisch)